Preserves Jar: Best Crops per Day in Stardew Valley

Short answer: the Preserves Jar accepts 36 crops. Measured by extra gold per machine per day, the best are Starfruit (568g), Ancient Fruit (424g) and Pumpkin (258g). The list changes a lot if you have only a few machines, because a machine that is always busy earns more from a fast, valuable crop than a slow, cheap one.

How to read the table

"Extra gold per machine per day" is the price of the product minus what the crop would have sold for raw, spread over the days the machine takes, assuming it is never idle and the Artisan profession is on. It is the number to use when you own fewer machines than you have crops. If you have more machines than crops, rank by total gold instead, which is what the Keg vs Preserves Jar tool does with your real harvest. Times use 1,600 game minutes per day, as the wiki states.

Crops for the Preserves Jar, best first
#CropMakesPriceDaysExtra gold per machine per day
1 Starfruit Jelly 2,170g 2.5 568g
2 Ancient Fruit Jelly 1,610g 2.5 424g
3 Pumpkin Pickles 966g 2.5 258g
4 Pineapple Jelly 910g 2.5 244g
5 Red Cabbage Pickles 798g 2.5 215g
6 Melon Jelly 770g 2.5 208g
7 Rhubarb Jelly 686g 2.5 186g
8 Cauliflower Pickles 560g 2.5 154g
9 Artichoke Pickles 518g 2.5 143g
10 Yam Pickles 518g 2.5 143g
11 Amaranth Pickles 490g 2.5 136g
12 Strawberry Jelly 406g 2.5 114g
13 Kale Pickles 378g 2.5 107g
14 Beet Pickles 350g 2.5 100g
15 Taro Root Pickles 350g 2.5 100g
16 Radish Pickles 322g 2.5 93g
17 Bok Choy Pickles 294g 2.5 86g
18 Grape Jelly 294g 2.5 86g
19 Potato Pickles 294g 2.5 86g
20 Cactus Fruit Jelly 280g 2.5 82g
21 Cranberries Jelly 280g 2.5 82g
22 Broccoli Pickles 266g 2.5 78g
23 Eggplant Pickles 238g 2.5 71g
24 Garlic Pickles 238g 2.5 71g
25 Powdermelon Jelly 238g 2.5 71g
26 Tomato Pickles 238g 2.5 71g
27 Blueberry Jelly 210g 2.5 64g
28 Corn Pickles 210g 2.5 64g
29 Summer Squash Pickles 196g 2.5 60g
30 Green Bean Pickles 182g 2.5 57g
31 Hot Pepper Jelly 182g 2.5 57g
32 Carrot Pickles 168g 2.5 53g
33 Parsnip Pickles 168g 2.5 53g
34 Unmilled Rice Pickles 154g 2.5 50g
35 Hops Pickles 140g 2.5 46g
36 Wheat Pickles 140g 2.5 46g

Reading the top of the list

A Preserves Jar finishes every fruit and vegetable in 2.5 game days, much faster than the Keg's wine, so it earns well on cheap crops: it needs fewer machines to keep up. Its best crops are those with a high price after processing, and the list rewards value more than volume. Among the five best, Starfruit makes Jelly worth 2,170g.

Each crop has its own page with profit per tile, fertilizer and the other machine. See also How many kegs do I need? for how many machines one plant keeps busy, and Best Greenhouse Setup for Money for the keg count that decides the greenhouse crop.

Related

Where these numbers come from

Game data comes from the Stardew Valley Wiki, cross-checked between at least two of its pages (last checked 2026-10-09). Profit figures are calculated by the same engine as our calculators. See the methodology, and tell us if something looks wrong in your game. All entries: Artisan Machines.